Abstract

Korea is experiencing unprecedented destruction of communities and crisis of mental health represented by top suicide rate among OECD countries. Its causes are manifold of various factors. One of them is lack of social support and broken communities that are closely related to social capital that is linked to other health indicators such as mortality rates. This studies looks for ways to improve social capital through spatial structure and features especially social capital related to neighborhood. Researchers conducted research literature review and observation on physical features of neighborhood streets and alleys. Review of studies show housing types can affect social capital level. High-rise apartments are related with lower neighborhood related social capital compared to single homes and low-rise multi-housing. Studies that mainly examined the physical features such as street layout showed that social encounters happened around local stores and crossings of small roads. Researchers identified actual streets that are more likely to be related with social activities in the neighborhood. Those streets were with physical elements that helped social exchange such as narrower streets, exposed stairs, street furniture of residents, parks, crossing of streets while other streets were with wider and easier access of cars.

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